The number of illegal migrants, who attempted to cross the Ukraine border into Slovakia last year decreased by 28 percent, says data of the annual report for 2013 of the border control. The report also states that African and Asian refugees mostly tried to cross the border with the help of local human smugglers.
The report sees as a problem that the illegal migrants misuse the asylum procedure. When after crossing the border a migrant is detained by police and then applies for asylum, the migrant cannot be returned to Ukraine. When such migrants are placed in an asylum facility, they often leave and continue with illegal migration to other countries of the European Union, states the report. A positive fact, as the report calls it, is that in 2013 the number of asylum seekers who were detained after crossing the border dropped. The busiest stretch of the border in the fight against illegal migration and smuggling of cigarettes is the northern part of the common border. A new way identified to get across the border was using a hang glider. Last year, three such cases led to a detention. Shots were fired on the border last year too. The report also informs that in December 2013 Slovak and Ukrainian police began joint patrols along the border.
